Hollinger in Antarctica

I was surrounded by palm trees and the sun was shining but for some reason I was very cold. Then, as I awoke I realised I had been dreaming and the reason I was cold was that it was cold! I checked the thermometer on my watch and it read minus 12 inside the tent at 6am! What a pleasant way to start December I thought. I needed the loo but couldn’t face going outside and the wind was howling around our tent. I could see where snow had managed to find its way inside, through small cracks in our snow wall barricade. I had little option but to reach for my pee bottle. This is perhaps my biggest dislike about Antarctica – being female you either pee into a bottle or go outside in minus 30 and get a very cold bottom. My pee bottle is probably my favourite piece of kit! Regardless of needing the loo, I would have to get out and dig our tent in again to stop the snow problem worsening. I began the morning by brushing the snow off the inside of the tent before donning my thermals, fleece trousers, fleece, windsuit, hat, gloves, mitts and goggles and setting off outside, armed with a snow shovel. I paused and took in the view – despite the cold it’s not a bad view to start December I thought. Once our protective wall was reconstructed I got back into the relative warmth of the tent. As the wind continued to howl it was clear that we would do relatively little today. We had a large snow slope to scale to get us out of the canyon but it was too much to undertake in such strong winds. By mid afternoon the wind had eased and Carl, Carolyn and Phil moved a pulk and 50kg of poo further up the valley while I wrote my diary and drank a cup a soup. Later, at around 5.30pm we packed the pulks and moved our camp 2kms further up the valley to the foot of the slope we would scale tomorrow – weather permitting. It’s going to be a tough haul but I’m sure we can make it.

Thanks to Katie and Bob for their messages and I am glad you a re enjoying the updates. I sometimes feel under a bit of time pressure to get them done as we have limited time on the laptop as it’s only fair that each teacher has their turn (basically that’s an excuse if my spelling is a bit poor – I have had to type in a rush!). Thanks to Sylvan for your questions. Antarctica is a big place – about 64 times the size of the UK so there are different times and time zones depending on where you are. I have mentioned in yesterdays blog entry about the times we are using but basically the sun is highest in the sky (at midday) which is 5 hours and 20 minutes later than the UK. I don’t really notice it, as we have 24 hours of daylight anyway so one day seems to blend into the next. The moon is sometimes visible – right throughout the day if there are no clouds – and it appears to follow the path of the sun. I suppose that it may seem strange as we usually associate the moon with night time. At the South Pole the time can be anything you want it to be! There is a large American research base there now so the Americans working there are using US time to make it easier if they are contacting their colleagues back in America. I hope that answered your questions. Happy birthday to Laylah 12BK, Harry 12HB, Georgina 12RK and Angelina 8NM